The Monarch is a controversial mechanic designed for casual multi-player games that has made a major impact in Pauper.

When you are the Monarch, you get to draw an extra card at the end of your turn. You become the Monarch when special cards state so and by dealing combat damage to an opponent who is the Monarch so you wrestle away the throne.

Why is this a problem ?

The mechanic was designed with multi player in mind and it would be fun exchanging the repeatedly having the throne exchange hands.

The argument is that in a two player game what actually happens on many occasions is that taking the throne is practically impossible and matches devolve into a cat and mouse affair of protecting the Monarchy at all costs. With the additional card draws defending the Monarch is far easier than when multiple players can make a play for the Throne.

Too many this can provide dull games where a win is ground out with inevitability over several turns. Matches where both sides have cards that allow you to become the Monarch are extremely tight affairs.

Is this actually a bad thing ?

Should we ban an archetype because a vocal part pf the community doesn’t like the mechanic or games it creates. What’s next ? Do we ban all counter spells ?  Do we ban all removal ? Then we could ban all Fog effects ? Everyone has favoured play styles and matches, should we really dictate how the format is played ?

We also have Pauper players who not only enjoy playing the Monarch but playing against it, sometimes you have to play out your Monarch creatures and work regain the Throne or sometimes your opponent plays their Monarch card and fail to defend it adequately.

What would the effect of removing the Monarch be though ? What would happen to the format if it wasn’t their to support Midrange decks, would we suddenly see an unpopular rise in aggro decks running rampant and games prematurely finishing. Banning comes with risks, the solution to one problem can create one much worse,

Where can we find the Monarch ?

So where can we find the Monarch ? You may be surprised to know every colour currently has a Monarch creature at common. However, you’d be hard pressed to find the blue or green Monarch cards in use and even the red Monarch card is really only seen in Izzet Faeries, Palace Sentinels is the backbone of Boros Monarch and Thorn of the Black Rose is key in Mono Black Control decks.

So if the Monarch is so bad why isn’t it more prevalent ? Take Tron, the accused bogeyman of the format which doesn’t use the Monarch, it really doesn’t need to as the Mulldrifter flicker card draw is more efficient and powerful for card draw.

How is Aggro affected ?

Well Aggro does suffers greatly against the Monarch decks. However, isn’t that the case with the Magic triangle where Midrange has the tools to tackle Aggro, Control can survive to the late game against Midrange and Aggro is fast enough to kill control before it can lock out the game. This is the natural order of things within Magic, they ebb and flow over time with one archetype in ascendancy but they do evolve. If that balance needs tweaking then don’t ban a whole mechanic, find a better solution. Could Aggro be helped by say unbanning Invigorate ? It may not be the exact best choice but might be worth considering to be a stepping stone to a balanced format.

My wife Rachel loves playing Pauper aggro decks and isn’t phased by playing against the Monarch, she’s put a lot work into playing against the Monarch to ensure her deck has the tools for her to use to have a fighting chance. Now mention “Flicker” decks to her and feel her wrath lol

Luckily Pauper is a relatively inexpensive format, we’ve built ourselves our own Battle Box of popular decks that we can pick up and play. Testing against hard match ups or learning the more obvious play patterns from having experience with a deck has helped both of us at our LGS when playing Pauper.

Commander Legends and the Monarch

This brings me nicely onto Staunch Throneguard, a colourless creature than allows you to become the Monarch and Fall from Favor a blue enchantment. Now there is much concern that these cards alone will skew the format more towards the Monarch. This is entirely possible and this may not entirely be a bad thing.

Mono Blue Delver may get boost from Fall from Favor and at one stage was a particularly bad match up for Tron which may help shift the meta. However, it is an enchantment so may be prone to be weak removal.

Staunch Throneguard offers a decent board presence for a ramp or reanimator deck and whilst it could appear in Tron it is less impactful to be flickered that the current favourite creatures of Mulldrifter, Stonehorn Dignitary and Dinrova Horror. I wonder if it could help Affinity to become popular.

We’ve seen lots of spoiled cards and downshifts already, we may yet have a surprise or to balance out the Monarch cards within Pauper as a whole.

Final Words

I’d like to advocate that we don’t ban the Monarch at this time. Whilst banning would certainly placate several more vocal community icons it is not certain that the views of certain individuals are indicative of the overall player base.

Rather than looking to ban the Monarch, we need to look constructively at how to level the playing field and make matchups better for all. It doesn’t matter what we ban as a new deck takes its place and a few weeks/months later the toxic cycle starts again of calling for new bans and dismissing those who object.